2011–12 Section Council Chairs

Access to Justice

Charles E. Vander Linden, chair

Vander Linden is a principal at Starr Vander Linden LLP in Fitchburg, where he represents a number of clients in litigation involving real estate, employment, business matters, insurance disputes and discrimination. A Groton resident, he previously served on the Groton Zoning Board of Appeals for 15 years and is currently a trustee of the Groton Conservation Trust. Vander Linden is a member of the Attorney's Committee of the Massachusetts Community Associations Institute and is the vice president of the Board of Directors of Community Legal Aid, with headquarters in Worcester.

Isabel Sara Raskin, vice chair

Raskin is practitioner in residence at Suffolk University Law School's Education Advocacy Clinic, a program she developed that supervises law students representing indigent clients in both school discipline and special education hearings. She received a Harvard Pilgrim Community Spirit 9/11 grant and was honored with the Boston Bar Association John G. Brooks Award for outstanding advocacy for legal aid clients. The Cambridge resident sits on Boston Public Schools' Special Education Advisory Council, and is a member of the Boston Public School's Code of Conduct Advisory Council and the Education Law Task Force.

Business Law

Francis C. Morrissey , chair

Morrissey, a Milton resident, is a partner with Morrissey, Wilson & Zafiropoulos LLP in Braintree, where he concentrates his practice in the areas of commercial litigation, insolvency and distressed acquisitions and divestitures. He also teaches bankruptcy, creditors' rights and secured transactions at Boston University School of Law and New England Law/Boston. In addition, Morrissey serves as a Board of Bar Overseers hearing committee member, an arbitrator for the MBA's Fee Arbitration Board and co-chair of the American Bankruptcy Institute's Annual Northeast Bankruptcy Conference. In 2010, he was appointed by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to serve a five-year-term on its Clients' Security Fund, which makes awards to members of the public who have sustained a financial loss caused by the dishonest conduct of an attorney or fiduciary.

Brian E. Glennon, II , vice chair

Glennon, a Duxbury resident, is corporate counsel at the Cumberland Gulf Group in Framingham, where he handles a wide variety of matters in a law department which serves two multi-billion-dollar companies within the retail and energy sectors. Prior to his position with the Cumberland Gulf Group, he practiced at a Boston firm and served as a law clerk at the Massachusetts Land Court. Since joining the MBA, Glennon has been active in the Business Law Section Council. He is a 1997 graduate of Suffolk University Law School and served in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve.

Civil Litigation

Raymond P. Ausrotas , chair

Ausrotas, a Cambridge resident, is a founding partner at Arrowood Peters LLP in Boston, a new civil litigation and trial boutique firm in Boston. He has served as an adjunct faculty member at New England School of Law (now New England Law), and has written columns on current legal issues for The Cambridge Chronicle. Prior to attending George Washington University Law School, he worked as an assistant cross country coach at Brown University, where he received his undergraduate degree, and on congressional and Massachusetts legislative committees. Ausrotas is also a member of the Boston Bar Association and was named by Boston magazine as a Superlawyer "Rising Star" in the area of General Litigation in 2005, 2007 and 2008.

 

Hector E. Pineiro, vice chair

Pineiro operates the Law Office of Hector E. Pineiro in Worcester, a general practice concentrating in civil litigation in the areas of medical malpractice, catastrophic injury, product liability and civil rights. He is a member of the MBA's Joint Bar Committee and is a member of the Regland Litigation Group of the American Association for Public Justice. Pineiro previously served as a member of the real estate faculty at Northeastern University. He sits on the advisory boards of the National Police Accountability Project as well as serves on the legal panel and as a cooperating attorney of the American Civil Liberties Union. Pineiro served on a nominating committee at the request of U.S. Magistrate Charles B. Swartwood III to screen candidates for the U.S. Federal Magistrate position for the central district. He is a member of the American Association for Public Justice and the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys.

Criminal Justice

Michael L. Fabbri, chair

Fabbri, an Ashland resident, is Chief of Homicides/Chief Trial Counsel in the Middlesex County District Attorney's Office in Woburn. He has also worked at the Attorney General's Office in Boston as an assistant attorney general and served as deputy chief of the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. Prior to that, Fabbri practiced law at Bikofsky, Walker & Tuttle in Framingham. Fabbri is a 1983 graduate of Northeastern University School of Law, a 1980 graduate of Framingham State College and a veteran of the U.S. Air Force.

Radha Natarajan , vice chair

Natarajan is a public defender with the Committee for Public Counsel Services in Somerville, where she represents individuals in the Somerville, Malden and Woburn district courts as well as Middlesex Superior Court. She is the 2011 recipient of the MBA's Access to Justice Defender Award. Natarajan is co-chair of the MBA Task Force on Law Schools and the Law Economy and an At-Large Delegate to the MBA's House of Delegates. A graduate of New York University School of Law, she was the managing editor of New York University Law Review. Natarajan's article, "Racialized Memory and Reliability: Due Process Applied to Cross-Racial Eyewitness Identifications" has been citied in numerous articles and by the U.S. District Courts in the Eastern District of New York and the Southern District of Texas.  She is an Instructor in the First Year Writing Program at Boston University School of Law. She lives in Somerville.

Family Law

Marc E. Fitzgerald, chair

Fitzgerald, a Milton resident, is a partner in the Boston law firm Casner & Edwards LLP. He practices in the firm's Family Law and Probate Group, concentrating in complex divorce cases, all aspects of domestic relations and probate litigation. A graduate of Boston College, Fitzgerald obtained his law degree from New England Law | Boston, where he was president of the Honors Moot Court from 2001 to 2002. He has appeared as a panelist at numerous family law seminars and conferences sponsored by the MBA and Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education. Fitzgerald is recognized as a Rising Star by Boston magazine.

 

Michael I. Flores, vice chair

Flores, an Orleans resident, is the principal of Michael I. Flores LLC in Orleans, devoted to the practice of divorce and family law. He is also the MBA's House of Delegates regional delegate for the counties of Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket. Flores is president of the Barnstable County Bar Association and past chair of its family law committee. He is a fellow in the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and a hearing committee member of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's Board of Bar Overseers. Flores has served as a moderator and panelist at family law conferences and seminars sponsored by the MBA and regional bar associations. He is also the editor of a Probate and Family Court reference guide for mental health professionals.

General Practice, Solo & Small Firm

John B. DiSciullo , chair

DiSciullo, a Newton resident, is a partner at Mitchell & DeSimone in Boston, where he practices civil litigation in areas including plaintiff's personal injury, insurance defense, insurance coverage, business disputes and construction defects. He served as vice chair of the MBA's General Practice, Solo & Small-Firm Section during the 2010-11 association year. DiSciullo has been recognized in Boston magazine as a Massachusetts Rising Star and Massachusetts Super Lawyer every year since 2005. DiSciullo is also an avid cycling enthusiast who maintains an online resource for bicycle riders needing more information about bicycling laws in Boston.

Scott Goldberg, vice chair

Goldberg, a Lexington resident, practiced at small firms before founding The Law Firm of Scott D. Goldberg PC in 1994.  He is now a sole practitioner in Boston who focuses almost exclusively on plaintiff's personal injury law with a concentration in representing injured police officers. He joins MBA leadership following years of membership, including serving on the council of the General Practice, Solo & Small-Firm Section during the 2010-2011 association year. Goldberg is also a member of the Boston Bar Association, the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys, and the American Association of Justice. Goldberg is an accomplished skier, a recreational golfer and has many years of martial arts training as both a student and former sensei.

 

Health Law

Stephen M. Fiore , chair

Fiore, a Belmont resident, is a partner at Foster & Eldridge LLP in Cambridge, where he specializes in the defense of medical providers and provides risk management advice to health care professionals. He previously practiced as an in-house litigation counsel, where he defended claims involving liability and employment law. Fiore contributes to the legal and health communities as an author and frequent lecturer on medical-legal issues and health care law for continuing medical education and risk-management programs. He has been named a Massachusetts "Super Lawyer" by Boston magazine.

J. Michael Scully, vice chair

Scully is a partner at Bulkley, Richardson and Gelinas LLP in Springfield, where he handles a variety of health law-related matters and other commercial litigation. He has represented numerous health care institutions, medical providers and insurers in a variety of litigation, regulatory and business-related cases. Scully also writes and lectures on health law issues, including confidentiality and privacy, and end-of-life issues. A Wilbraham resident, he volunteers with the Springfield School Volunteers Reading Program and a local troop of the Boy Scouts of America. He has also worked with the Community United Way of Pioneer Valley, Junior Achievement and the March of Dimes.

Immigration Law

Gerald C. Rovner, chair

Rovner, a Needham resident, is a solo practitioner in Boston, where he exclusively practices immigration law. He has served as chair of the MBA's Fee Arbitration Board and is a life fellow of the Massachusetts Bar Foundation. Rovner is one of the senior members of the Governor's Advisory Commission on Refugees and Immigrants. In addition, he has been a prominent member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, having served as the chair of the New England Chapter, a member of its Board of Governors, and chair of the Vermont Service Center Liaison Committee. Awarded the Bronze Star for his service in the U.S. Army in Vietnam, Rovner has served as a member of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority Advisory Board and is active in several community activities in Needham. He graduated from Rutgers University School of Law.

Michael D. Greenberg, vice chair

Greenberg operates a private practice in Boston that concentrates in trial practice and appearances before the Executive Office of Immigration Review. He is chair of the American Immigration Lawyers Association's Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee and was previously a court liaison for the association. Greenberg teaches criminal law and Immigration Court practice and procedures through various education forums locally and nationally. He lives in Marblehead.

Individual Rights & Responsibilities

Frank A. Smith III, chair

Smith, a Milton resident and principal at Frank A. Smith III & Associates PC in Boston, focuses his practice in the areas of family law, personal injury, business law and civil rights. A frequent lecturer and writer for the Massachusetts legal community, he served as a 2010 co-chair for a panel discussing legal issues pertaining to the use of Guantanamo Bay and difficulties surrounding detainees at the base. In 2011, he served as moderator for a panel discussion on the anti-bullying statute in Massachusetts. He is a fellow of the Massachusetts Bar Foundation.

Richard W. Cole, vice chair

A Boston resident, Cole is a nationally known civil rights and Safe Schools consultant who served for 16 years in the Office of Attorney General as an assistant attorney general and Civil Rights Division chief. Cole developed and co-chaired former Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly's "Safe Schools Initiative," a statewide collaboration that provides the training and assistance that schools need to make them safe from harassment, hate crimes and bullying. He co-chaired a national initiative that resulted in the 1999 U.S. Department of Education publication, "Protecting Students from Harassment and Hate Crime-A Guide for Schools." As national co-chair of a joint federal-state hate crime training initiative from 1997-99, Cole was a primary author and editor of the U.S. Department of Justice's publication of three hate crime modules currently used to train state and local law enforcement throughout the U.S. on hate crime response, investigation, and enforcement. He also served as the national chair of the Civil Rights Task Force of the National Association of Attorneys General.

Judicial Administration

Hon. Gordon L. Doerfer (ret.) , chair

Doerfer, a Needham resident, is a mediator and arbitrator on the panel of neutrals at JAMS -- The Resolution Experts in Boston -- where he specializes in the arbitration and mediation of business disputes. He is also on the adjunct faculty of Suffolk University Law School, where he teaches trial practice and previously served as adjunct faculty at Boston College Law School. Doerfer retired from the bench following 25 years of service, including four years on the Boston Municipal Court, fifteen years on the Superior Court and six years as an associate justice of the Massachusetts Appeals Court. He is a recipient of a Judicial Excellence Award from the Massachusetts Judges Conference. He recently completed his term as president of the American Judicature Society, a national organization of lawyers, judges and citizens advocating for the integrity of the judicial system.

John J. Morrissey , vice chair

Morrissey, a Hingham resident, is a founding partner of the law firm of Morrissey, Wilson & Zafiropoulos LLP in Braintree, a boutique law firm practicing in the areas of litigation, bankruptcy & creditors' rights and real estate. He practices in the area of litigation with a principle focus on personal injury and workers' compensation claims. Morrissey also serves as an arbitrator on the MBA Fee Arbitration Board. He is a member of the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys' Board of Governors and chairman of the Workers' Compensation Committee. Morrissey currently serves as a member of the Board of Bar Overseers' Hearing Committee for Plymouth and Norfolk counties. HeMorrissey is a life fellow and a member of the Grant Advisory Committee of the Massachusetts Bar Foundation. Since 2003, Morrissey has served as a director of Central Bancorp, a publically traded company, and as a director and chairman of the Real Estate Committee of Central Co-Operative Bank since 2004.

Juvenile & Child Welfare

Michael F. Kilkelly, chair

Kilkelly operates Kilkelly Law Office in Malden, where he concentrates in juvenile and domestic relations issues. He is a juvenile delinquency supervising attorney for Middlesex Defense Attorneys and the Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS) Youth Advocacy Department (YAD). Kilkelly previously spent 10 years as a regional coordinator for the CPCS Children and Family Law program. He is also an adjunct professor in the paralegal program at Middlesex Community College. Kilkelly has participated in continuing legal education programs for MCLE, CPCS, YAD, the Juvenile Bar Association, and others. He authored a chapter on Children in Need of Services (CHINS) proceedings in the MCLE manual, Child Welfare Practice in Massachusetts (2006 and Supp. 2009). Kilkelly was the 2003 recipient of the Judge Mary C. Fitzpatrick Children and Family Law Award from CPCS. He was president of the First District Eastern Middlesex Bar Association from 1998 to 1999. Kilkelly lives in Wakefield with his wife, attorney Susan K. Kilkelly.

Marlies Spanjaard, vice chair

Spanjaard is the project coordinator for The Edlaw Project, an initiative of the Children's Law Center of Massachusetts and the Youth Advocacy Department of the Committee for Public Counsel Services EdLaw advocates for the education rights of Massachusetts' highest risk children. She is responsible for supervising staff attorneys and interns, making program-wide policy decisions, and conducting state-wide trainings on education-related issues with a specific focus on representing court-involved youth. Spanjaard was previously a staff attorney at the Edlaw Project. She has trained a wide variety of audiences including parents, youth workers, students and lawyers.

Labor & Employment

Dahlia C. Rudavsky , chair

Rudavsky is a partner in the Boston firm of Messing, Rudavsky & Weliky PC, where she concentrates her practice on the representation of individual employees and unions, with an emphasis on discrimination cases. During the MBA's 2010-11 association year, Rudavsky served as the vice chair of the MBA's Labor & Employment Section.  She was named one of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly's "Lawyers of the Year" for 1999, in 2002 was recognized by Boston magazine in its "Best of Boston" list of employment law attorneys, and each year since 2004 she has been named a Massachusetts Super Lawyer. In 2005 and again in 2009 she was recognized as one of the Top 50 Massachusetts Female Super Lawyers identified by Boston magazine.  Rudavsky is the past chair of the Massachusetts Employment Lawyers Association's MCAD/EEOC Committee, and is a former member of the steering committee of the AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee. She has served as lecturer in law at Harvard Law School, where she taught labor law. Rudavsky lives in Newton.

Sheryl D. Eisenberg, vice chair

Eisenberg practices at Hirsch Roberts Weinstein LLP in Boston, where she focuses on management-side labor and employment law counseling employers across a broad range of industries and representing clients in all stages of litigation. She was co-chair of the MBA's 2011 Labor & Employment Annual Conference and has served as faculty, chair and moderator for various MBA educations programs related to labor and employment law. Eisenberg was named a Massachusetts Super Lawyer in 2009 and 2010. She lives in Boston.

Law Practice Management

Thomas J. Barbar, chair

Barbar, a resident of Boston's South End, is a principal with the family law department at Deutsch Williams, Brooks, DeRensis & Holland PC in Boston, where his practice concentrates on probate and domestic relations. Previously, Barbar was a solo practitioner in West Roxbury. He is a past co-chair of the Family Law Section and is currently in his second year as an attorney mentor in the MBA Tiered Community Mentoring Program. Barbar has testified at the Statehouse on behalf of the MBA regarding family law bills, as well as been a panel participant and chair for probate and family law issues for the Boston Bar Association and the MBA. He also served on the MBA's 2009-10 Budget and Finance Committee.

Stephen Seckler, vice chair

Seckler is president of Seckler Legal Coaching in Newton. He coaches individual attorneys on how to sell with greater effectiveness. He counsels lawyers at all career stages on how to achieve greater career satisfaction. Seckler also consults with small to mid-sized law firms in the areas of marketing, management and social media. He is the author of CounseltoCounsel, a marketing and career blog that has been named a top 100 legal blog by the editors of the ABA Journal. He is a frequent writer and speaker on marketing, business development and law practice management. He lives in Newton.

 

Probate Law

Michael R. Christy, chair

Christy, a Worcester resident, is an associate at Mirick, O'Connell, DeMallie and Lougee LLP in Worcester, where he focuses on complex business and fiduciary litigation matters, including probate and trust litigation and corporate and partnership disputes. Christy served as vice chair of the MBA's Probate Law Section during the 2010-11 association year. He has chaired MBA continuing legal education programs and contributed articles to the Deposition Handbook and the Boston Bar Journal.

Jennifer Laucirica, vice chair

Laucirica, a Scituate resident, is a senior attorney at Goodwin Procter LLP in Boston, where she manages the estate administration group of the trusts and estate planning practice with a focus on estate taxation, estate administration, and probate and trust law. Previously Laucirica managed Cushing & Dolan's estate administration practice, was an associate with State Street Global Advisors specializing in estate taxation and estate administration and served as a probate paralegal for the Office of the Attorney General. She is a member of Probate and Family Court Chief Justice Paula M. Carey's Massachusetts Uniform Probate Code Article III Implementation Committee and participated in House testimony toward the passage of the MUPC. Laucirica is a member of the Boston Bar Association and the Boston Probate and Estate Planning Forum. She frequently writes and lectures on the topics related to estate planning, probate litigation and probate law including publications for MCLE and MBA Section Review. Laucirica was named a Massachusetts Super Lawyer "Rising Star" in 2010.

 

Property Law

Thomas L. Guidi, chair

Guidi is a partner at Hemenway & Barnes LLP in Boston, where he focuses his practice on commercial real estate and non-profit law while chairing the firm's Real Estate Practice Group. He has been a regular panelist for several continuing legal educations seminars and has written numerous articles on real estate law topics. Guidi was a contributing author of MCLE's publication, "Drafting Commercial real Estate Documents in Massachusetts."  A Danvers resident, he previously served on the town's Zoning Board of Appeals. He is also on the Board of Governors for the Salem Country Club and is active in fundraising for both Dartmouth College and St. John's Preparatory School in Danvers.

Michael G. Gatlin, vice chair

Gatlin operates the Law Office of Michael G. Gatlin in Framingham, a general practice which concentrates in commercial and residential real estate and development. He is an agent for First American Title Insurance Company. Gatlin is a frequent lecturer for MBA continuing legal education programs related to real estate law. He lives in Framingham.

Public Law

Michele Randazzo, chair

Randazzo, an Avon resident, is a principal at Kopelman & Paige PC in Boston, where she practices municipal law with a focus on labor and employment matters. She represents governmental entities in litigation in all state and federal trial and appellate courts, as well as before administrative agencies. In addition, she counsels clients on a variety of public sector issues, such as the Open Meeting, Public Records, Conflict of Interest, and Municipal Finance laws. Randazzo previously served as a staff attorney for the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, U.S. Department of Justice. She previously served two years as a co-chair of the MBA Public Law Section.

Edward Pikula, vice chair

Pikula, a Springfield resident, is city solicitor for the City of Springfield. He has substantial experience in all state and federal trial and appellate courts as well as administrative agencies in matters involving civil rights, municipal law, land use, employment issues and torts. Pikula has published articles and has lectured at local and statewide legal education and professional seminars. He has been an adjunct faculty member at several colleges and has served on various boards and committees for the Hampden County Bar, City Solicitors and Town Counsel associations.

Taxation Law

Lisa M. Rico , chair

Rico is a partner in the Estate Planning Group at Gilmore, Rees & Carlson PC, focusing on estate planning, probate and tax law. She also represents non-profit organizations - such as charitable trusts - and provides tax advice to partnerships and other pass-through entities. Rico often lectures and has authored numerous materials on estate planning issues, including family-limited partnerships, estate liquidity and the generation skipping transfer tax. The Ashland resident has previously served on several prominent American Bar Association committees and task forces dedicated to estate planning and administration, income and transfer tax planning and business planning.  She is currently serving as vice chair of the Business Planning Group of the ABA's Real Property Trust and Estate Law Section.

Richard M. Stone, vice chair

Stone is a tax attorney in Boston, where he focuses on state, federal and international tax matters, including planning, audits, appeals and litigation. In addition to his private practice, the Boston resident is of counsel to the McLane law Firm in Woburn. Stone has also served as general counsel of two major multinational U.S. companies including Western Development Corporation (later known as The Mills Corporation) and APCOA, Inc. Stone was selected to be a member of the American Bar Association Advisory Panel, which informs the ABA's priorities and decisions. He contributes to the legal community by lecturing and writing; his most recent appearance was as a featured speaker at the MBA's 2010 Annual Conference. Stone is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Young Lawyers Division

Scott Heidorn, chair

Heidorn is with Bergstresser & Pollock LLC in Boston, where he focuses his practice on complex professional liability claims, including legal and medical malpractice. He previously served as YLD Secretary in 2009-10 and sat on the YLD Board of Directors from 2007 to 2009.  Heidorn is also a member of the Boston Bar Association. He lives in Reading.